Building sustainable service models with QWRAP and qldwater

Queensland councils face challenges in ensuring that remote and regional communities have access to essential water and sewer services. What is needed to build sustainable service models?

In Queensland, essential drinking water and sewer services are provided mainly by local governments to their communities.

There are 69 water service providers in Queensland, ranging in size from Urban Utilities, which provides services to 660,000 water connections across five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in South East Queensland, to the smallest council, Croydon Shire Council, with just 142 water connections.

Historically, essential water and sewer services have been supported through a range of State Government programs and grant investments in urban water and waste infrastructure.

The support provided by the State Government has varied over time and has often been dependent on the size and location of the water service provider. Financial support through infrastructure grants has ranged from 33 to 100 per cent.

Typically, higher state subsidies have been provided to smaller and more remote councils that lack the customer base to self-fund the necessary infrastructure.

Since 2009, due to the global financial crisis, Local Government Water Service providers have had to fund water and wastewater operations and infrastructure from the general and water rates via increasing debt or through a state grant system. This has traditionally focused on other policy priorities (i.e. economic development, jobs generation).

New standards impact service models

Over the past ten years, higher drinking water standards and increasing community requirements for environmental protection have continued to increase water service providers’ capital and operating costs.

Since 2011, the industry has been raising concerns about an impending infrastructure cliff and the financial sustainability of small local government water service providers to fund essential services for their communities as assets reach the end of their design life.

In 23-24, Queensland Water Minister Glen Butcher announced the implementation of a Statewide Urban Water Risk Assessment (UWRA).

The UWRA will work with Local Government Water Service Providers across the State to review key risks, including drinking water quality, water security, industry skills and resourcing and sustainability of the infrastructure base.

Minister Butcher has indicated that the UWRA will advise the Government regarding appropriate long-term responses from the State Government to ensure that Queensland communities can access high-quality water and wastewater services.

What is the QWRAP?

The Queensland Regional Water Alliance Program (QWRAP) supports regional Local Government Water Service Providers to collaborate on a regional scale to better manage water and wastewater services and infrastructure.

QWRAP is a joint initiative developed by qldwater (a membership body for water service providers in Queensland), the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) and the Queensland Government through the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water. Nine QWRAP regions represent 57 Local Governments throughout Queensland.

To support water service providers, QWRAP provides funds to employ a regional coordinator and offers small grants to facilitate the development of joint or collaborative approaches.

The South West Queensland Water and Sewerage Alliance (SWQWSA) was established as a QWRAP region in 2021, comprising the Shire Councils of Balonne, Bulloo, Murweh, Paroo and Quilpie and Maranoa Regional Council.

The SWQWSA Councils cover a total land area of 319,261 square kilometres or 18.5 per cent of Queensland, but their combined population of approximately 24,000 accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of the State.

The Councils provide potable water services to 26 communities with a total of 10,545 connections, non-potable water services comprising 1,157 connections to two communities, one of which does not receive a potable supply, and sewerage services to 14 communities, with 8,109 connections in total.

The largest potable water scheme serves 3,539 connections, with the smallest serving only 14 connections. Similarly, the largest sewerage scheme looks after 3,083 connections compared to the smallest of 25 connections. Of the 26 potable water schemes, only three have water treatment plants. Most schemes use bore water as their sole source, and many need to be disinfected.

Sustainable service models for water and sewerage

In providing water and sewerage services, the SWQWSA Councils must overcome challenges posed by the remote and dispersed nature of their communities, the very small scale of most of their schemes, limited rate bases and borrowing capacity, and small to very small communities with low per-capita incomes and inability/unwillingness to pay the full cost of providing services but increasing expectations about service quality.

At the same time, they are subject to an increasingly rigorous regulatory regime and water quality and environmental standards that may be beyond the capacity of their existing infrastructure and resourcing.

During 2021, using QWRAP Bid Pool Funds, the SWQWSA developed a detailed application. It then successfully secured $1.6 million in funding from the Queensland Government’s Building Our Regions 6 funding round.

The BOR 6 funding was used to undertake detailed asset management planning across all water and sewage asset categories. That includes Drinking Water Testing & Assessment of Water Quality, Sewerage Treatment Plant Inspection & Assessment, Reservoir Inspection & Assessment and Sewer Pump Station Inspection & Assessment.

This project aims to develop a clear picture of existing risks and activities to provide the community with safe drinking water and modern wastewater management outcomes.

The communities within these LGAs mostly rely on the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) for drinking water, which comes from bores at an average depth of 800 metres. GAB bores have an expected asset life of 75 years.

Potential risks and issues

Some key risks and issues that have been identified through the SWQWSA asset management plan are:

11 per cent of drinking water supply bores in the region are over 100 years old and at critical risk of failure.
20 per cent of drinking water supply bores in the region are more than 80 years old and are at serious risk of failure.
Several of these critical risk towns are single bore supply, placing these towns at risk of water security concerns.
CCTV surveys of sewer network assets show that 12 per cent of sewer assets are at a point of critical failure by the length of assets.

The report has recommended allocating $3 million to a bore re-sleeving program to ensure water security for these communities, representing around 40 per cent of the total number of communities that rely on the GAB for drinking water supply. A further $8 million will be required for a regional sewer relining program to restore the integrity of the region’s 265 kilometres of sewer mains.

SWQWSA is working with Minister Butcher and the Queensland Government as part of the Statewide Urban Water Risk Assessment (UWRA) to develop a partnership to address the identified risks and create modern sustainable water and sewage services across the State’s South West.

For more information, visit qldwater.com.au